


Faulty System

by campylobacter



Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Canon Related, Episode Tag, Exposition, Friendship, Gen, Latin, Missing Scene, Nudity, Technobabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-23
Updated: 2011-08-23
Packaged: 2017-10-23 00:06:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/244070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/campylobacter/pseuds/campylobacter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daniel Jackson, Vala Mal Doran & Radek Zelenka discover something awkward & unexpected in the Atlantis holographic archives. Takes place immediately after last scene of SG-1 10x03 "Pegasus Project". My attempt to explain why Daniel changed his glasses in SG-1 10x08 "Memento Mori", and why Daniel was so nonchalant with Rodney about Janus's lovers in SGA 5x10 "First Contact".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Faulty System

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the SG-1 Friendathon prompts: "[Daniel, Vala, Zelenka; faulty system"](http://sg1friendathon.livejournal.com/12051.html?thread=118291#t118291). Early draft beta-read by **shakespherical** , who prevented my Zelenka from sounding like Pavel Chekov.

Daniel tried to hide a huff of frustration, but couldn't prevent his tone from revealing his impatience. "We were able to get a playback of what Morgan LeFay said before she disappeared the first time. Why can't–"

"I am sorry, Dr. Jackson," Zelenka sighed. "It looks as though no visual records were kept of your entire session in holo-room."

Vala scoffed and stepped upon the dais. "So an Ascended being generated even the playback?" She gestured toward the ceiling. "And the Atlantis family 3-D picture album? All of it?"

"From the looks of it, yes, while at same time not drawing any energy usage, besides the lighting of the room." He slipped a few fingers between his eyeglasses and face to rub his temple. "Is lucky that was what happened; without full remaining power of the ZPM we would not have detected with long range sensors the Wraith hive ship which was approaching the _Odyssey_."

"Huh." Daniel's anxiety abated as he was struck by the serendipity. "Conveniently lucky."

"You have a sexy accent, Dr. Zelenka," Vala purred, drawing her gaze from the Czech flag on Zelenka's shoulder to his mouth, which opened in surprise.

"Vala..." Daniel chided.

"Please... um, call me Radek." He straightened his jacket.

"And your eyes are as stunningly blue as Daniel's," she continued, flippantly heedless of the archaeologist's warning glare, "when he's not glaring at me."

"I can see why he can't take his eyes off you." Zelenka pulled a handheld calibrator from his pocket as Vala coyly bit her lip. "You have sticky fingers."

Vala scoffed as she recognized the device she'd almost "liberated" from the Gate control deck earlier. "Well, no matter, then. He and I had best transcribe our recollections straightaway before we forget."

"Wait." Daniel blocked her from taking over the control console. "Maybe Radek – or Rodney, when he gets back – can think of a way to retrieve the video information through, I dunno... auxiliary surveillance records?"

"Is not possible, no." Zelenka shook his head vehemently and tapped at the touchscreen in the console. "Rodney will tell you same thing when he returns with the _Odyssey_ : no power was drawn by either audio-video system of recording."

" _Systém je vadný_ ," muttered Daniel.

"System is _not_ faulty," retorted Zelenka. "Just powered down to save energy."

"So with the imminent danger from the Wraith relieved – for now – is it okay to power it up?" Daniel spoke faster as hope lifted his spirits. "Can we at least look through the last recorded surveillance to see what it captured? Or if there are any archives where Morgan LeFay or Ganos Lal appears prior to her Ascension?"

"Very well, I will see what can be done." Radek entered commands into the touchscreen and adjusted data crystals inside the console, while Vala practiced what looked like kickboxing moves on the dais. Daniel awkwardly watched them both for a bit before initiating a minute inspection of the aqua-colored light panels set in the copper wall frames.

"Dr. Jackson, if you please–"

"Call me Daniel," he blurted, eager to be of assistance as he rushed to Radek's side. "How can I help?"

"What is word in Ancient for 'personal'?"

Daniel's eyes focused on a distant point across the room while he ran through Latin synonyms. " _Privatae_...? _Arcanus_? Um..." Then Vala kick-boxed her way into his line of sight, breaking his concentration. "Why?"

"I need a search term for personal records of Ancients which relates to entries which are not publicly...." Zelenka's eyes followed Vala's agile, lithe form as she twirled and punched an invisible opponent. "Ehh... not publicly-shared data. So far Rodney and I have barely read through three percent of all technical logs in the Atlantis database, although indexing and cross-linking give us access to–"

" _Solum_ ," Daniel said aloud, as a likely word occurred to him.

A shimmer of light enveloped Vala, and then she was being embraced by a glowing nude woman with sensuously plump, brown limbs and a head of short, black curls. Vala gasped and stepped back in surprise as the three-dimensional image tightened its embrace to hug itself and chant:

 _Intus cubiculum occultus_  
Ideas infinitus  
Operum libera*

"What's she saying?" Vala demanded.

Before Daniel – mouth agape – could construct a coherent interpretation, Zelenka tapped the control screen in the console; the image blinked, and the woman continued chanting in the metallic, slightly flanged voice of real-time translation:

I _would meet with you_  
Dance and feast with you  
And hold you as we drift in slumber

"How delightfully accommodating of the city," Vala said. "Can holo-recordings be uploaded to our individual quarters?"

Daniel cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses. "Ah-hmm... not exactly what I was looking for." He took a deep breath, and then spoke to the room, "Show us the private entries of Ganos Lal."

The holographic woman vanished, and the image of another woman – robed in gold – replaced her, replying in a translated voice: "No such record exists."

"That is the same avatar that appeared when Dr. Beckett first activated this room when Atlantis was still underwater," Zelenka said.

"Were you seriously expecting Morgan LeFay to show up again?" Vala arched a mischievous eyebrow at Daniel. "Wearing clothes, of course."

"Is possible she is in the library, but has encrypted all access to her records." Zelenka tapped in more commands. "We only need the encryption key."

"That could take a long time," Daniel sighed.

"Nonsense." Vala bounced off the dais and nudged the men away from the console with her hips. "What are the known pseudonyms of Ganos Lal besides Morgan LeFay?"

The avatar answered calmly, "Access to that information is restricted."

"Who's allowed access to such restricted information?" Vala pressed on, ignoring Daniel's attempts to reclaim the controls.

"Only those with the cipher to the record itself, or override codes from each member of the High Council, determined by consent of a popular vote."

Daniel flashed her a tight-lipped "I told you so" look, but Vala ignored it.

"Show the most prolific senders of public text messages to Ganos Lal." She thrust her shoulders back and proudly lifted her chin as three semi-transparent men (including Moros) and two women appeared on the platform. "Now filter all unique phrases in their correspondence, exclusive of each other and then display the terms."

"I think I know what you are doing," Zelenka exclaimed. "Let me refine the search with a regular expression..." He reached across her to tap the screen.

"Is that how you hacked my computer password?" Daniel grumbled as Vala stepped away from the console and stood next to him.

"Oh no," she chuckled, "those large spectacles you wear are very... reflective."

Zelenka pushed his small, oval frames closer to his face. "Big lenses make more glare."

Daniel sighed in exasperation. "I've always worn this style of glasses. Anyhoo, this could take all night."

"True, I didn't anticipate that Ms. Lal had so many lovers."

"L-lovers?" Daniel sputtered.

"A basic tenet of espionage, darling: if one wants classified information on a private person, one only need look to his or her most intimate cohorts."

"This may take a while," Zelenka informed them. "I'll run several filters and load the results onto a data crystal that you can study later."

"Thanks, Radek," Daniel said. "It's better than nothing. I mean, it's at least something we can use."

"Excellent!" Vala clapped her hands together. "Let's go back out to the balcony, toast our fortune with exotic beverages, and," she pitched her voiced lower and imitated the physicist, "you can talk _Zelenka_ to me."

"His Czech isn't that good," Zelenka quipped.

"You go on ahead." Daniel gently pushed her toward the door. "I'm turning in after the crystal's loaded."

"Ugh." Vala trudged away, then perked up as a thought crossed her mind. "Wait, does Dr. Weir speak _Zelenka_?"

**Author's Note:**

> *Pardon my craptastic Latin; I was trying to translate:  
>  _"[Within] a bastion of unfettered thought and experimentation"_  
>  from SGA 5x10 "First Contact" dialog into Ancient verse


End file.
